MMO Year in Review: A Star Wars Galaxies postmortem (April 2015)

This year, we’re taking a time-machine back through our MMO coverage, month by month, to hit the highlights and frame our journey before we head into 2016.

Raph Koster kept our commenters occupied in April with his long retrospective on how Star Wars Galaxies worked and whether it failed. The Button took hold of the gaming world, WildStar F2P rumors ran rampant, and Greed Monger completely imploded.

Bonus: Someone coined the term “SHMOBA” unironically. That makes it all worthwhile. Check out the whole month below.

Star Citizen whale talks purchases vs. donations

EverQuest II cuts expansions, debuts DLCs with Rum Cellar

Elder Scrolls Online advertises cash shop item in game

Elite: Dangerous is now available on Steam

The button is not an MMO… but it’s sure something

Greed Monger is dead in the water; sole programmer quits

Trion snaps up Linda ‘Brasse’ Carlson

Crowfall teases female Ranger archetype

Guild Wars 2 Heart of Thorns’ first elite spec is the Chronomancer

Crowfall’s Walton says we should blame him for Star Wars Galaxies’ NGE

EVE Online fan calculates an 18% drop in subscriptions

NCsoft West lays off Austin support staff

EverQuest Next offers a new piece of fiction for fans

How Jedi ruined Star Wars Galaxies

Crowfall unveils the badass lady Champion

Final Fantasy XIV Heavensward’s spoiler-filled trailer

World of Warcraft 6.2 adds new dungeon difficulty, zone

Black Desert adjusts for ‘casual lite’ Korean market

Rumor: WildStar box recall and promo might herald free-to-play

How Crowfall will be built for around $6M

Smedley: We will support EQ and EQII ‘for the very long haul’

WildStar is now on clearance at Best Buy

EverQuest test server accidentally discounts cash shop items to pennies

Take a look at Landmark’s overhauled landmasses

Pathfinder Online pushes for aggressive recruiting on media sites

SWTOR’s Rise of the Emperor update arrives tomorrow

Koster’s final post-mortem: Did Star Wars Galaxies fail?

Daybreak launches new site, triggers week of celebratory events

EverQuest emulator group gets a ‘written agreement’ with Daybreak

Steam empowers studios to permaban players

City of Titans demos its first costume and combat prototypes

Perfect Ten: How to find the right MMO for you

Perfect Ten: The 10 things every MMO’s official site should have

Perfect Ten: 10 MMOs that let you turn real money into MMO money

WoW Factor: Flying ruined everything and shouldn’t be removed

10 ways MMOs have changed the real world for the better

The Soapbox: The misguided quest for MMO stickiness

Blasting through a hands-on with TERA’s new Gunner

Ascent is MMO space simming done right

LOTRO Legendarium: Why you need to read the books if you play the game

EVE Evolved: Four lessons sandbox MMOs can learn from EVE

Massively Overthinking: The death of the MMO guild

MMO Mechanics: How strong communities are barriers-to-exit

Massively Overthinking: The pure PvE ‘niche’ of MMORPGs

LOTRO Legendarium: Why LOTRO needs a progression server

GTA Online: All the open world feels, none of the MMO grind

The Game Archaeologist: What Star Wars Galaxies life was like before the NGE

Working As Intended: Ten lessons I learned from classic Guild Wars

MMO Year in Review: Daybreak’s downslide (February 2015)

MMO Year in Review: Crowfall’s Kickstarter (March 2015)

MMO Year in Review: A Star Wars Galaxies postmortem (April 2015)

MMO Year in Review: WoW’s nosedive (May 2015)

MMO Year in Review: Heavensward’s arrival (June 2015)

MMO Year in Review: Smed & Smart (July 2015)

MMO Year in Review: Into the Heart of Thorns (August 2015)

MMO Year in Review: WildStar Reloaded (September 2015)

MMO Year in Review: The SWTOR vs. Guild Wars 2 showdown (October 2015)

MMO Year in Review: Blizzard’s big plans (November 2015)

MMO Year in Review: Star Citizen’s triumph (December 2015)